At camp in Westford, 'Phil' Hoffman was a 'good guy'

WESTFORD -- East Boston Camps was a lifesaver for David Bartolomi, an East Boston kid who, every year since he was 9, waited anxiously for the summer so he could head back to Westford.

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He said it's why he pushed his college friend, "Phil," to join him as a camp counselor there in 1987.

"It was a wonderful summer," Bartolomi said. "Camp meant the world to me, and I wanted to share it with the people I was close with."

Phil was a quiet guy, about to turn 20, who was studying to be an actor in New York City. The East Boston Camps site was designed to bring inner-city kids out into the country to experience the outdoors. Counselors were tasked with helping the kids, ages 9 to 15, find enriching, engaging activities away from gangs, drugs and other bad influences.

Counselors from that year remember Phil, who later became known in many American households as the talented actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, and how he loved to teach campers about theater. Hoffman also served as a boating instructor in those few months.

Fellow counselors recalled how the young man was dramatic and funny, with a "magnetic intensity." He shared his passion for acting with others that summer. The group said they were devastated to learn this week of the his death.

On Sunday, at age 46, Hoffman was found dead in his Manhattan apartment from an apparent heroin overdose. Officials continue to investigate the circumstances.

Terry Forbes Free of Quincy was a camp counselor in 1987 and today is a mother and a secretary. She said Hoffman was a joy to hang out with and remembered how they would spend time in the sand pits at the edge of the camp and, during off-nights, how they would head to Chelmsford to do laundry and catch a movie.

The crew also went to Kimball Farm in Westford for ice cream as often as possible. Free said it was one of Hoffman's favorite local spots.

"He was just a really good guy," she said.

Free said her children just watched Hoffman in the latest "Hunger Games" film, "Catching Fire."

Jim Sorrento, who grew up in Revere and has a dental practice in Ipswich, was another camp counselor with ties to the East Boston Camps community, which he also attended as a boy. He said it was amazing to watch Hoffman's career unfold on the big screen after spending the summer of 1987 in Westford.

"He got the nomination for 'Capote,' and that was amazing."

Sorrento said being a counselor at East Boston Camps "was one of the best experiences of my life, and having somebody like that there was like, 'Wow.'"

"We just had so many fond memories," he added. "We felt so proud we had the opportunity to work with him."

Sorrento said he has been reflecting this week on the good times the group shared.

"He was a great, great person with a big heart," he said. "I try not to think of him in the light that things ended."

Hoffman, according to the BBC World Service, first checked into rehab for heroin addiction and alcohol abuse after graduating from New York University in 1989. But the East Boston Camps counselors said they never saw any behavior like that from Hoffman in the time they knew him.

"He wasn't ever the kind of guy that partied hard," Bartolomi said. "We would never use. We were such good, down-to-earth, honest kids. ... That's why this is so shocking. He was very private about that kind of stuff. He was more of one to isolate."

Bartolomi is today a photographer in New York. He remembered how he took Hoffman's first head shot out of school, to help him with the auditioning process in the city. He said the pair kept in touch for several years, and every now and then would bump into one another on the streets.

"For five or six years, he struggled (with) achieving any sort of success because, you know, he was a real character," Bartolomi said. "He wasn't a Hollywood pretty boy. So he began to gravitate to these characters, these darker roles. Slowly, he built those roles into a career and began to be recognized for it. ...

"He was always a good, loving soul, and he remained that, even when he became successful."

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